XI  B  RAR.Y 

OF  THE 
UNIVERSITY 
Of    ILLINOIS 

822.33 
AC84 


The  person  charging  this  material  is  re- 
sponsible for  its  return  to  the  library  from 
which  it  was  withdrawn  on  or  before  the 
Latest  Date  stamped  below. 

Theft,    mutilation,    and    underlining    of    books    are    reason, 

for   disciplinary    action    and    may    result   in    dismissal    from 

the  University. 

To  renew  call  Telephone  Center,  333-840O 

UNIVERSITY    OF    Illinois    LIBRARY    AT    URBANA-CHAMPAIGN 


L161— O-1096 


THE  DOROTHY  GRAIN  SERIES 


Ciphers 


For  the  Little  Folks 


A  Method  of  Teaching 
The  Greatest  Work  of  Sir  Francis  Bacon 

Baron  of  Verulam,  Viscount  St.  Alban, 


Designed  to  Stimulate  Interest  in  Reading,  Writing  and  Number  Work, 
by  Cultivating  the  Use  of  an  Observant  Eye  • 


With  an  ,  ^ 

Appendix  on  the  Origin,  History  and  Designing  of  the  Alphabet  , 
By  Helen  Louise  Ricketts  ^v  * 

\\' 


RIVERBANK   LABORATORIES 

EDUCATIONAL  DEPARTMENT 

DOROTHY  GRAIN,  Director  of  Kindergarten 

GENEVA,  ILLINOIS 


Copyright,  1916 
GEORGE  FABYAN 


INTRODUCTION 

These  lessons  are  presented  as  suggestions  with  the  idea  that  the 
teacher  or  parent  will  adapt,  lengthen,  shorten,  or  remake,  as  the  needs  of 
the  little  folk  demand.  Their  value  will  depend  on  the  way  in  which  they 
are  brought  before  the  children. 

The  aim  is  not  to  impose  on  children  adult  knowledge  and  accomplish- 
ments, but  to  afford  them  experiences  that  on  their  own  account  appeal 
to  them,  and  at  the  same  time  have  educational  value  and  significance. 

Children  should  have  a  great  deal  of  handwork;  they  do  their  best 
thinking  when  they  are  planning  something  to  do  with  their  hands.  Their 
attention  is  much  more  easily  focused  upon  something  they  are  doing  with 
their  hands  than  upon  something  which  they  hear  or  read.  Building  with 
the  blocks,  paper  folding  and  cutting,  painting  and  drawing,  and  what  is 
known  as  constructive  work,  are  all  means  of  self-expression. 

An  explanatory  paragraph  will  accompany  each  lesson.  In  order  that 
the  workings  of  the  Biliteral  Cipher,  from  which  these  lessons  were  derived, 
may  be  more  readily  understood,  a  short  explanation  will  follow  for  the 
guidance  of  the  teacher  or  parent,  to  whom  it  is  left  to  choose  the  best 
methods  of  explaining  the  Cipher  to  the  children,  step  by  step. 

The  Biliteral  Cipher  devised  by  Francis  Bacon  and  explained  in  detail 
in  his  Advancement  of  Learning  (see  Spedding's  English  edition  of  Bacon's 
Works,  Vol.  IV,  pages  444-447)  is  based  upon  the  mathematical  fact  that 
the  transposition  of  two  objects  (blocks,  letters,  etc.)  will  yield  32  dissimilar 
combinations,  of  which  only  24  would  be  necessary  to  represent  all  the 
letters  in  our  alphabet  (i  and/,  u  and  v  being  used  interchangeably  in  the 
16th  Century).  Lesson  I  of  this  series  shows  the  24  combinations  used  by 
Bacon,  and  constitutes  the  "Code"  or  "Key." 


By  reference  to  Lesson  I  it  will  be  seen  that  variations  in  the  grouping 
of  a's  and  &'s,  five  at  a  time,  are  made  to  represent  each  letter  of  the  alpha- 
bet, except  that  i  and  /  and  u  and  v  are  regarded  as  interchangeable.  In 
all  the  succeeding  lessons,  objects  are  chosen  to  represent  a  or  b,  and  the 
order  or  succession  of  their  grouping,  when  compared  with  the  code 
(Lesson  I),  will  determine  the  letter  they  represent. 

Words  in  a  language  being  made  up  simply  of  combinations  of  letters, 
it  is  clear  that  as  long  as  only  two  differences  are  available,  words  can  be 
built  up  by  making  the  proper  combinations  according  to  the  code.  Any 
differences  will  do,  and  to  this  fact  are  due  the  possibilities  for  the  exercise 
of  the  thinking  powers,  imagination,  and  skill  on  the  part  of  children  in 
this  work.  Lesson  VI,  for  example,  combines  elements  of  instruction  and 
play  in  an  interesting  manner.  The  transmission  of  words  and  sentences 
can  be  accomplished  even  without  the  use  of  objects,  for  two  different 
motions  of  the  fingers  or  hands  will  do;  likewise  two  different  sounds— 
in  fact  any  differences  perceptible  to  any  of  the  five  senses  can  be  used. 
"Wig-wagging"  as  used  by  the  U.  S.  Army  Signal  Service  is  based  upon 
this  Cipher.  Thus  many  games  can  be  planned  which  will  have  an  educa- 
tional value  in  training  to  a  higher  efficiency  every  faculty  the  child 
possesses. 

The  lessons  have  been  arranged  in  a  sequence  according  to  their  in- 
creasing order  of  complexity,  leading  up  gradually  to  the  presentation  of  the 
possibility  of  sending  hidden  messages  in  an  open  communication  without 
arousing  any  suspicion  as  to  the  presence  of  anything  secret.  In  Lesson  XIV 
the  phrase  "Biliteral  Cipher"  is  made  to  contain  the  hidden  word  "Key"  by 
the  use  of  a  capital  letter  for  the  a  form  and  a  small  letter  for  the  b  form. 
Of  course  the  differences  between  the  a  form  and  the  b  form  can  be  made 
much  less  apparent  than  the  differences  between  capital  and  small  letters; 
in  fact  the  differences  can  be  made  so  small  that  they  would  be  imperceptible 
to  the  casual  observer,  but  it  still  would  be  possible  to  distinguish  them.  It 
is  in  this  phase  of  the  work  that  accuracy  and  care  in  the  formation  of 


letters  may  be  taught,  not  only  in  script  or  handwriting,  but  also  in  print- 
ing, both  of  which  are  now  fast  becoming  lost  arts.  Cipher  writing,  if 
properly  taught,  will  give  practice  in  penmanship  that  will  be  interesting 
and  not  onerous  to  children. 

The  adaptability  of  the  Biliteral  Cipher  to  the  manifold  uses  to  which 
it  can  be  put  makes  its  pedagogical  possibilities  far-reaching;  and  the  field 
for  the  exercise  of  the  faculties  of  both  teacher  and  pupil,  parent  and  child, 
is  one  of  the  broadest,  most  instructive  and  entertaining  that  has  ever  been 
opened  to  the  little  folks  of  primary  age. 

Any  further  information  which  the  instructor  may  care  to  secure  will  be 
furnished  on  application  to  the  Riverbank  Laboratories. 


TRAINING  THE  EYE  TO  SEE 

That  the  faculty  of  sight  needs  training  will  be  admitted  by  every 
reasonable  person,  but  how  best  to  give  the  eye  this  advantage  is  a  ques- 
tion which  has  never  been  settled.  An  English  hunter,  the  author  of  a 
book  on  Norway,  gives  some  interesting  hints  upon  the  matter: 

The  reason  that  the  different  characteristics  of  tracks  are  not  ob- 
served by  the  untrained  eye  is  not  because  they  are  so  very  small  as 
to  be  invisible,  but  because  they  are — to  that  eye — so  inconspicuous 
as  to  escape  notice.  In  the  same  way  the  townsman  will  stare  straight 
at  a  grouse  in  the  heather,  or  a  trout  poised  above  the  gravel  in  the 
brook,  and  will  not  see  them;  not  because  they  are  too  small,  but 
because  he  does  not  know  what  they  look  like  in  those  positions.  He 
does  not  know,  in  fact,  what  he  is  looking  for,  and  a  magnifying  glass 
would  in  no  wise  help  him.  To  the  man  who  does  not  know  what  to 
look  for,  the  lens  may  be  a  hindrance,  because  it  alters  the  proportions 
to  which  his  mind  is  accustomed,  and  still  more  because  its  field  is  too 
limited. — Youth's  Companion. 


LESSON  I 

This  lesson  is  intended  to  teach  the  code  or  key.  Attention  is  called  to  the  mathe- 
matical regularity  of  its  construction,  which  will  enable  the  teacher  to  demonstrate  it  in  a 
very  simple  manner.  First  write  the  column  of  numbers  from  1  to  24.  Then  opposite 
number  1  place  five  red  circles  in  a  row.  Under  the  last  one  in  this  row,  and  on  a  line  with 
number  2  place  a  blue  circle,  and  continue  alternating  red  and  blue  down  the  column. 
Then  under  the  4th  red  circle  in  the  1st  row  place  another  red  one,  then  two  blue  ones, 
alternating  2  reds  with  2  blues  down  the  column.  In  the  3rd  column  the  reds  and  blues 
alternate  in  sets  of  four;  in  the  2nd  column,  in  sets  of  eight,  and  in  the  1st  column,  in  sets 
of  16.  Since  only  24  combinations  are  necessary,  the  last  eight  of  the  possible  32  have  been 
omitted.  Now  opposite  these  24  combinations  place  the  letters  of  the  alphabet  in  regular 
order,  remembering  that  I  and  J,  U  and  V  are  used  interchangeably. 

To  facilitate  the  use  of  the  code  the  red  and  the  blue  circles  may  be  designated  by 
small  a  and  small  b  respectively.  The  right  hand  section  of  this  lesson  gives  the  code 
worked  out  on  this  plan  and  makes  future  reference  easy.  In  all  the  succeeding  lessons 
one  form  (whether  it  be  blocks,  beads,  yarn  or  what  not)  will  be  called  the  a  form,  and  the 
other  will  be  called  the  b  form.  On  account  of  the  nature  of  the  code,  the  a  forms  always 
predominate;  and  in  getting  together  materials  for  this  work,  the  teacher  should  be  guided 
accordingly. 


LESSON  I 

100909  A  aaaaa 

200000  B  aaaab 

300000  C  aaaba 

400000  D  aaabb 

500000  E  aabaa 

600000  p  aabab 

700000  G  aabba 

800000  H  aabbb 

900900  |-J  abaaa 

10  0      0      0      0      9  K  a  b  a  a  b 

11  0     0      0      0     0  L  a  b  a  b  a 

12  9      0      0      0     0  M  a  b  a  b  b 

13  0     0      0     0     0  N  a  b  b  a  a 

14  0     0      0      0      0  0  a  b  b  a  b 
1500000  P  a  b  b  b  a 

16  0     0      0      9      9  Q.  a  b  b  b  b 

17  90      000  R  b  a  a  a  a 

18  0     000      0  S  b  a  a  a  b 

19  0     0      0      0      0  T  b  a  a  b  a 

20  0      0     0      0      0  U-V  baabb 

21  0      0     0      0     0  W  b  a  b  a  a 

22  0      0      9      9      9  X  b  a  b  a  b 

23  9      9      9      9      9  Y  b  a  b  b  a 

24  9      0     m      9      0  Z  b  a  b  b  b 


LESSON  II 


Short  lines  represent  the  a  form,  long  lines,  the  b  form.     The  cipher  word  is  "the." 
Various  forms  of  sewing  cards,  or  yarns  of  different  colors  may  be  used. 


LESSON  III 


In  this  weaving  mat  the  light  squares  represent  the  a  form,  the  dark  ones,  the  b  form. 
The  arrow  marks  the  starting  point,  and  the  reading  proceeds  from  left  to  right  in  each 
line.  The  cipher  message  is  "Mary  had  a  little  lamb."  Any  sentence  containing  the 
requisite  number  of  letters  can  be  inserted  on  the  same  principle. 


18 


LESSON  IV 


This  lesson  embodies  what  may  be  designated  as  a  symbolic  cipher  design.  This 
design  conveys  the  idea  of  the  setting  sun,  and  hence  the  cipher  word  contained  within  is 
"sunset."  Red  sticks  represent  the  b  form,  orange  sticks,  the  a  form.  The  arrow  marks 
the  starting  point,  and  the  reading  proceeds  in  a  clockwise  direction. 


LESSON  V 


This  is  another  symbolic  cipher  design  picturing  "Humpty-Dumpty. "  The  blue 
squares  represent  the  a  form,  the  red  squares  the  b  form.  The  cipher  message  is  "sat 
on  a  wall."  The  blank  squares  can  be  filled  by  colored  crayons  or  blocks,  and  the  children 
can  thus  practice  the  building  of  the  message  by  referring  to  the  code  in  Lesson  I. 


i? 


o 

co 
co 
W 


CU 

— 


cu 
JS 

H 


cu 

-C 


0 


o 
ex 


-G 
OS 


cu 

'So 

T3 

C 
rt 


cu 

JS 


ex 

<U 

o 


ttj 

c 

'c 

fcJC 


iff 


tuD  O 

"o  "5  P 

^        OS  i*^ 

-      CU  M 

C    ii  u- 


V 

cx 


T3 
cu 


cj 

T3 

C 


C 
cu 

-C 

cu 

— 


O     cu 
co   ^5 

o 

«  g 

1j 


o    ^ 


cu     be     O 

r;      aj       co 


"H 
o 


H 


•a  c 

co-      K..O 
CU        "y    ij 

3      &    « 

4J          S^.Jj 

•s.  M  '"^ 

4J        CU 

C  -C 

VJ         flj       4-* 

"S.  !S  s 
•q  «|-g 

M  «  3 

.S     tS*      co 


LESSON  VII— THE  TIME-TEACHING  CLOCK 

In  this  clock  the  movable  colored  dots  indicating  the  minutes  are  used 
to  spell  out  the  time  in  cipher.  In  the  working  cards  to  be  provided  for 
the  child  the  colored  dots  are  to  be  inserted  in  the  holes  made  for  the  purpose 
around  the  face  of  the  clock.  There  being  sixty  dots,  any  phrase  expressive 
of  time  not  exceeding  twelve  letters  in  length  (that  is,  twelve  times  five 
dots  for  each  letter  equals  60)  is  available  for  indicating  the  time  in  cipher. 
That  is  to  say,  any  phrase  such  as  "half-past  ten,"  "nine-thirty,"  etc.,  can 
be  indicated  on  the  clock  by  using  five  times  as  many  dots  as  there  are 
letters  in  the  phrase  selected.  Should  there  be  less  than  twelve  letters  in 
the  phrase,  the  holes  remaining  are  to  be  left  blank. 

This  lesson  is  extremely  flexible  in  respect  to  the  many  combinations 
which  it  makes  possible.  The  teacher  or  parent  should  bear  in  mind  that 
the  most  effective  use  of  the  clock  is  to  be  attained  by  first  choosing  a 
phrase  designating  some  time  of  the  day  which  is  significant  in  the  daily 
experience  of  the  child — such  as  the  opening  or  closing  hour  of  school,  the 
play  hour,  the  dinner  hour,  or  "bed-time."  This  phrase  is  converted  into 
cipher  by  having  the  child  place  the  dots  representing  the  letters  of  the 
phrase,  beginning  at  the  figure  twelve,  around  the  clock  face.  After  this 
has  been  done  the  child  should  be  asked  to  "decipher"  the  phrase  by 
naming  the  letter  which  each  group  of  five  dots  stands  for.  When  this  is 
accomplished,  the  ability  to  read  the  time  becomes  an  unconscious  achieve- 
ment, since  the  hands  of  the  clock  are  then  placed  by  the  parent  or  teacher, 
or  by  the  child  under  her  direction,  in  the  proper  position  to  indicate  the 
deciphered  phrase.  If,  for  example,  the  phrase  "half-past  nine"  is  selected 
and  the  child  has  extracted  this  from  the  colored  dot  combination,  the 
hands  of  the  clock  are  moved  to  nine-thirty.  The  child,  with  the  phrase 
fresh  in  his  mind,  learns  from  this  the  position  of  the  hands  of  the  clock 
representing  the  time,  since  the  mental  image  of  the  clock  face  with  the 
hands  in  the  required  position  establishes  an  association  which  becomes 
indelibly  impressed  on  the  child's  mind. 


21 


The  method  here  described  is  the  best  for  young  children.  With 
children  of  more  advanced  age  and  greater  ability  to  use  their  own  minds, 
the  reverse  practice  may  be  followed.  The  teacher  may  name  the  phrase 
designating  the  time,  and  direct  the  child  to  put  in  place  the  colored  dots 
representing  the  letters  of  the  phrase  by  referring  for  each  letter  to  the 
code.  This  requires  an  intelligence  of  a  higher  order  than  the  method  first 
described. 


22 


LESSON  VII— THE  TIME-TEACHING  CLOCK 


By  reference  to  the  code  the  arrangement  of  the  dots  on  the  clock  will  be  found  to 
spell  the  time  indicated  by  the  hands,  i.  e.,  "five  past  four."  The  red  dots  represent  the 
a,  the  blues  the  b. 

23 


LESSON  VIII 


On  this  cipher  necklace  the  square  beads  represent  the  a  form,  the  round  beads  the 
b  form.  The  cipher  words  are  "Yankee  Doodle."  For  working  this  or  any  other  appropriate 
phrase,  the  child  should  string  the  beads  on  one  of  the  laces  provided. 

85 


LESSON  IX 


This  is  similar  to  the  preceding  lesson  except  that  in  this  case  the  blue  beads  represent 
the  a  form,  the  orange  beads,  the  b  form.     The  cipher  words  are  "A  Cipher  Chain." 

27 


LESSON  X 


This  cipher  necklace  combines  both  Lessons  VIII  and  IX,  and  shows  how  two  ciphers  may  be  infolded  at  once. 
Reading  the  beads  first  as  regards  their  shape  and  using  the  same  system  as  in  Lesson  VIII,  the  necklace  still 
spells  out  the  word  "Yankee  Doodle."  Then  reading  the  beads  as  regards  color,  the  words  "A  Cipher  Chain" 
are  deciphered,  as  in  Lesson  IX.  This  lesson  gives  a  hint  of  the  possibility  of  enfolding  three,  four,  or  five 
cipher  messages  at  once. 

29 


rt     X 


-       OJ 


_ 

0  C^ 

1  3    o 
a-  o    o 

M  M  js 


gf's 
3J8&J 

<->  ^  u 


XI 

^ 
o 

CO 


M-g 

S 
8-8 


"c 

C 


i 

o 

Cfl 

C! 


6   o.  c 

S    fc*  "3 

vg  «  5 

-1-   c 

Q  a.  o 

i      O 


<u 

H 


>-. 
^ 
- 


• 

C      <L> 
<U      C 


<s>      > 

S     '       C 

" 


3  <r>  -a 

4->  C  — 

u  c  •- 

<U  03  -C 

4-1  CO  U 


LESSON  XII 


i£fen 


&&Tmi^'  - '* 

&S$Rf ' ' 
-JF\V  • 

&&£& 


•-W/ 


t 


The  cipher  word  is  "pasture,"  the  red  circles  being  the  a  form,  the  blue  ones  the  b  form. 


LESSON  XIII 


The  cipher  word  is  "Barking,"  the  red  circles  being  the  a  form,  the  blue  ones  the 
b  form. 


35 


LESSON  XIV 


wrt     :  i 


*r 
:% 


The  word  "CIPHER"  contains  the  hidden  name  "Sir  Francis  Bacon,"  the  red 
circles  being  the  a  form,  the  blue  ones,  the  b  form.  The  reading  proceeds  in  the  same 
manner  as  the  strokes  of  the  letters  would  be  made  by  the  hand.  The  design  in  the  margin 
contains  a  double  cipher,  similar  in  construction  to  the  necklace  in  Lesson  X.  The  red  and 
blue  pieces  still  represent  the  a  and  the  b  forms  respectively,  as  before,  and  the  cipher  word 
is  "alphabet."  This  constitutes  the  first  cipher.  The  second  cipher  is  based  upon  the 
difference  in  shape  of  these  pieces,  the  long  ones  being  the  a  form,  the  circles,  the  b  form. 
The  cipher  word  is  "decipher." 


LESSON  XV 


B  i  L   I    t  E  R 


a 


L 


c 

• 

1 

p 

h 

e 

R 

The  phrase  "Biliteral  Cipher"  is  made  to  contain  the  hidden  word  "key"  by  the  use  of 
a  capital  letter  for  the  a  form,  and  a  small  letter  for  the  b  form.  The  borders  to  the 
lines  contain  the  cipher  word  "letter,"  the  blue  sticks  being  the  a  form,  the  red  ones  the  b 
form.  The  reading  proceeds  from  left  to  right  in  each  line,  beginning  with  the  line  at  the  top. 
The  children  may  be  directed  to  cut  out  any  set  of  letters  of  appropriate  size  to  form 
any  desired  phrase,  using  capital  and  small  letters  on  the  same  principle  as  in  the  example. 


LESSON  XVI 


CIPHER  CODE 


aaaaa  =  A 
aaaab  B 
aaa  b  a  C 
aa  a  b  b  =  D 
aab  aa  E 
aabab=  F 
aab  ba--  G 
aabbb=H 

a  h  aaa   I-J 

abaab=  K 
ababa=  L 
ababb  -  M 
ab  baa  N 
ah  hah  O 
abbba=P 
abbbb  =  0 
b  aaaa=  R 
baaab= S 
baaba=T 
baabb=U-V 
babaa= W 
babab  =  X 
babba  =  Y 
babbb^Z 


Explanation 

This  architect's  sketch  presents  an  interesting  method 
of  making  use  of  the  Biliteral  Cipher.  The  white  bricks 
are  supposed  to  represent  the  a  form  letters,  the  shaded 
bricks  the  b  form.  Begin  with  the  top  of  the  wall,  at  the 
left-hand,  below  the  tower,  read  the  lines  from  left  to  right, 
and  assign  an  a  or  b  to  each  brick  on  that  principle,  divid- 
ing off  the  resultant  0's  and  &'s  into  groups  of  five.  Then 
refer  to  the  accompanying  cipher  code  which  will  show 
you  for  which  letter  of  the  alphabet  each  group  stands. 
The  result  will  be  amusing  as  well  as  interesting  and 
instructive. 


The  Origin,  History  and  Designing 
of  the  Alphabet 


By  HELEN  LOUISE  RICKETTS 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  ALPHABET 

CHAPTER  I 

I  want  to  tell  you  a  story  about  something  you  use  every  day,  something 
you  could  not  get  along  without,  and  yet  that  you  never  think  about  or  are 
glad  to  have.  I  do  not  believe  that  even  after  I  tell  you  several  things  about 
it  you  can  guess  what  it  is. 

It  is  one  of  the  oldest  things  in  the  world,  so  old  that  no  one  knows 
when  it  was  first  used. 

It  is  a  more  wonderful  thing,  a  great  many  people  think,  than  the  inven- 
tion of  steamboats  and  steamcars,  or  of  airships  and  submarines. 

It  is  so  important  that  you  could  not  have  any  books  without  it,  and 
if  there  were  no  books,  you  would  not  go  to  school,  and  then  how  could  you 
learn  all  the  things  you  want  to  know? 

It  is  so  common  that  you  see  it  and  hear  it  and  use  it  almost  every 
minute  of  the  day. 

It  is  made  of  twenty-six  different  parts.  You  can  make  me  know  what 
these  are  with  a  pencil  or  crayon.  With  them  you  speak  and  write  and  read. 
There  are  machines  which  hold  these  parts  separately  or  form  them  in 
groups,  and  then  leaving  their  likeness  on  paper  give  us  books  and  stories 
to  read. 

Now  I  am  afraid  that  I  have  told  you  too  much!  Have  you  guessed 
what  these  twenty-six  little  tools  are  called  ?  We  call  them,  and  so  did  your 
grandfather  and  greatgrandfather  and  all  the  people  that  lived  hundreds 
and  hundreds  of  years  ago — the  Alphabet. 

You  never  knew  before  that  the  Alphabet  was  such  a  wonderful  thing, 
did  you  ?  Would  you  like  now  to  hear  the  story  about  it  ? 


45 


Long,  long  ago  in  a  country  called  Egypt,  which  is  far  across  the  sea 
(you  may  find  it  on  your  map,  and  that  will  make  it  more  interesting  for 
you)  they  had  a  very  curious  way  of  writing.  They  had  no  letters  like  our 
A,  B,  C's,  but  did  what  we  call  picture  writing;  that  is,  they  drew  pictures 
instead  of  writing  letters  and  words  as  we  do  today.  Their  writing  looked 
like  this — 


That  does  not  look  much  like  writing,  does  it?  You  do  not  know 
what  it  means,  either,  do  you  ?  Yet  the  people  at  that  time  could  read  their 
picture  writing  just  as  easily  as  we  can  the  Alphabet  writing.  This  is  the 
way  they  sent  messages  to  each  other  and  wrote  down  the  things  they  wanted 
to  remember.  Do  you  know  that  they  did  not  have  any  paper  in  those  days 
long  ago,  either?  What  do  you  think  they  used?  They  cut  their  pictures 
on  stone,  on  walls  of  buildings,  and  sometimes  on  wood  and  the  bark  of 
trees.  They  also  had  a  material  called  papyrus,  which  was  made  from  reeds 
growing  in  the  swamps  of  Egypt.  Think  what  a  long  time  it  must  have 
taken  them  to  write  in  this  way,  and  how  much  easier  and  quicker  it  is  for 
you  and  me  today! 

To  the  north  of  Egypt  there  is  a  small  country  called  Phoenicia.  If 
you  will  look  on  your  map  you  will  find  that  the  sea  comes  to  the  very 
shores  of  this  country.  In  Phoenicia  there  were  many  beautiful  things 
that  people  in  other  countries  wanted  to  buy.  So  the  Phoenicians  built 
big  ships  and  filled  them  full  of  the  beautiful  things  and  sailed  away.  Across 
the  water  they  came  to  a  land  by  the  name  of  Greece,  the  country  you  know 
about  where  Hercules  and  Ulysses  lived,  and  here  they  unloaded  their 
ships.  Of  course  the  Phoenicians  brought  the  picture  writing  they  had  learned 
from  the  Egyptians  with  them.  By  this  time  they  were  beginning  to 


M 


think  pictures  took  too  long  to  draw,  and  they  gradually  changed  the 
pictures  into  signs  so  that  they  could  write  easier  and  quicker.  So  the 
writing  they  brought  to  Greece  was  quite  different  from  the  picture  writing 
they  had  learned  from  the  Egyptians.  It  looked  like  this— 


We  cannot  understand  this  either,  can  we  ?  But  you  can  see  it  is  much 
better  than  the  way  they  wrote  before. 

The  Greek  people  were  very  happy  that  the  Phoenicians  brought  such 
a  wonderful  way  of  writing  with  them,  and  soon  began  to  copy  it,  and  use 
it  in  their  country,  too.  When  the  Phoenicians  went  back  to  their  own 
country  the  Greeks  continued  to  use  the  sign  writing,  but  changed  it  and 
made  it  more  beautiful.  They  gave  it  a  name,  too,  and  called  it  by  the 
names  of  the  first  two  signs,  Alpha  which  means  "ox,"  and  Beta  which 
means  "house."  If  you  put  these  two  words,  Alpha  and  Beta,  together, 
what  do  you  have?  ALPHA-BET — the  word  we  use  today. 

Now  the  Greeks  were  an  adventurous  people,  and  one  day  they  set 
sail  in  their  ships,  and  went  to  the  land  of  the  Romans,  which  is  now  called 
Italy.  They  liked  this  new  country,  and  some  of  them  settled  there.  Like 
the  Phoenicians  long  ago,  they  brought  their  new  Alphabet  with  them.  The 
Romans  were  a  great  and  wonderful  people,  but  they  did  not  know  the  easy 
way  of  writing  by  signs  that  the  Greeks  used.  They  saw  right  away  what 
a  fine  thing  this  Alphabet  was,  and  began  to  use  it  for  their  writing,  too. 
At  first  they  wrote  the  signs  exactly  the  way  the  Greeks  did,  but  soon  they 
changed  them.,  and  made  them  simpler  and  better. 


47 


CHAPTER  II 

You  know  the  story  of  the  Alphabet  from  its  beginning  so  long  ago 
in  far  Egypt  to  the  time  when  it  came  to  the  Romans  and  how  it  changed 
from  pictures  to  signs  and  from  signs  at  last  to  the  letters  of  the  Alphabet. 
You  know,  too,  how  hard  it  was  for  the  people  to  write  in  those  days  when 
they  had  no  better  material  than  papyrus,  wood  and  stone.  That  was  a 
long,  long  time  ago.  Would  you  like  to  hear  a  story  about  what  has  hap- 
pened to  writing  since  the  time  of  the  Romans  and  the  changes  that  have 
taken  place  in  the  Alphabet  in  its  travels  through  the  countries  of  Europe? 

The  first  great  thing  of  importance  was  the  discovery  of  a  new  material 
to  write  on.  What  do  you  think  it  was?  —  the  skins  of  sheep  and  calves! 
That  seems  strange  to  us  and  we  like  the  paper  we  use  today  better,  but 
think  what  a  great  improvement  this  discovery  was  then  and  how  much 
easier  writing  could  be  done  on  the  smooth  surface  of  the  skin  with  a  pen 
and  ink.  In  all  of  the  countries  except  Italy  this  change  of  writing  material 
brought  about  a  change  in  the  style  of  lettering  too.  The  Romans  alone 
kept  to  the  simple  form  of  lettering  they  had  always  used  and  did  not 
change  it  when  writing  on  the  skins.  The  other  European  countries  gradu- 
ally came  to  vary  this  style  and  make  the  letters  more  pointed,  heavier 
and  blacker  and  in  some  cases  more  elaborate.  This  style  of  lettering  was 
called  the  Gothic.  Do  you  see  the  difference  between  these  two  alphabets? 


Ambm 


The  Alphabet  had  not  been  in  these  countries  long  enough  yet  for  all 
the  people  to  have  learned  to  write.  Only  a  very  few  knew  the  letters, 
and  as  all  the  writing  was  done  by  hand,  it  took  a  long  time  to  write  a  whole 
book.  The  few  books  that  were  written  were  so  precious  that  they  were 
chained  in  the  churches  and  monasteries  and  the  people  were  only  allowed 
to  read  them  there.  At  last  in  the  country  of  Germany  a  man  by  the  name 


of  Gutenberg  thought  of  a  way  to  make  more  books  and  make  them  faster. 
And  this  way  was  by  printing.  Just  as  the  Alphabet  spread  to  the  different 
countries  so  this  new  way  of  writing  spread,  until  all  of  the  people  of  Europe 
were  using  printing  machines  and  making  many  books. 

In  Germany  the  Gothic  lettering  had  been  used  when  the  writing  was 
done  by  hand  and  Gutenberg  copied  this  style  in  printing  the  first  book. 
When  the  art  of  printing  spread  to  the  different  countries  the  Gothic  alpha- 
bet, of  course,  came  with  it  and  was  accepted  as  the  correct  style  of  letter. 
The  Romans,  however,  still  believed  their  Alphabet  to  be  the  better  and 
cut  their  printing  type  after  the  Roman  model.  So  a  great  quarrel  sprang 
up  between  the  different  countries  as  to  which  Alphabet  should  be  used,  the 
Roman  or  the  Gothic.  In  Italy  a  man  called  Manutius  tried  to  settle  the 
quarrel  by  making  a  letter  which  all  the  printers  would  use  and  he  called 
his  style  of  lettering  the  Italic.  The  printers  who  used  the  Gothic  and  Rom- 
an letters  also  used  these  Italic  letters,  but  were  not  willing  to  give  up  their 
own  style  and  use  the  Italic  entirely. 

We  are  so  used  to  seeing  and  using  the  Alphabet  today  that  we  never 
ask  ourselves  how  the  letters  came  to  look  the  way  they  do  now.  Look 
at  Plate  I,  which  shows  a  beautiful  Alphabet  of  Gothic  letters  made  by  a 
famous  German  artist,  Albert  Diirer.  There  are  twenty-nine  of  them, 
all  entirely  different,  but  still  you  can  see  that  they  are  all  brothers  and 
sisters  in  one  big  family.  Do  you  wonder  how  this  came  about?  Look  at 
Plate  II  and  you  will  learn.  The  first  letter  i  is  made  by  putting  together  a 
number  of  small  squares  in  a  certain  way.  Can  you  see  the  way  the  other 
letters  are  made  from  this  letter  z? — the  n  is  made  by  putting  two  i's  to- 
gether; the  m,  three  i's,  and  the  r,  one  i  and  an  extra  square  at  the  top.  Go 
through  the  rest  of  the  Alphabet  and  see  if  you  can  find  out  the  way  it  is 
made. 

Now  look  at  Plates  III,  IV,  V,  VI,  and  VII  showing  another  Alphabet 
by  the  same  artist,  which  he  patterned  after  the  Roman  letters.  He  found 
that  they  were  made  according  to  a  certain  rule  and  proportion,  and  it 


was  these  he  worked  out  in  making  his  Alphabet.  Here  you  see  the  pattern 
is  a  large  square,  and  the  letters  are  drawn  very  carefully  in  them.  Did 
you  know  before  there  was  as  much  figuring  and  measuring  done  in  the 
making  of  the  Alphabet  as  there  is  in  building  a  house?  Look  at  the  letter 
E,  for  example,  and  all  the  circles  and  squares  that  have  been  measured 
and  drawn  to  make  it.  You  will  find  that  every  letter  is  made  just  as  care- 
fully. 

Here  are  the  three  ^'s  that  you  see  in  Plate  III.  You  will  find  that 
theyare  not  exactly  alike.  Can  you  see  the  difference  between  them? — A,  1, 
is  cut  off  in  a  curve  at  the  top,  A,  2,  goes  straight  up  in  a  sharp  point, 
and  A,  3,  is  cut  off  flat.  Do  you  notice,  too,  the  difference  in  the  thickness 
of  the  letters? 


AAA 


Look  at  the  other  letters  in  this  Alphabet  (Plates  III,  IV,  V,  VI,  and  VII) 
and  see  if  you  can  tell  me  about  them  in  the  way  I  have  told  you  about  the 
yfs. 

For  many,  many  years,  the  printers  in  the  different  countries  used 
Alphabets  the  artists  had  made  for  them,  without  being  able  to  decide  which 
they  liked  the  best,  the  Roman,  Gothic  or  Italic.  On  Plate  VIII  you  will 
find  a  little  poem  by  Shakespeare  printed  in  these  three  Alphabets.  Which  one 
do  you  like  the  best?  I  am  sure  you  will  choose  the  one  that  is  the  simplest, 
the  easiest  to  read  and  at  the  same  time  the  most  beautiful — the  Roman. 
In  the  quarrel  which  had  been  going  on  for  so  many  years,  the  Roman 
alphabet  won  the  victory,  and  that  is  how  it  came  about  that  the  Roman 
is  used  in  printing  all  our  newspapers  and  books  today.  At  last  after  so 
many  hundreds  of  years  it  has  traveled  through  the  other  countries  to  us. 
Many  times  you  cannot  recognize  the  letters,  and  they  look  very  different 
from  the  Roman  models  from  which  they  were  patterned,  but  that  is  be- 
cause we  are  not  as  careful  with  the  measurements  and  proportions  as 
were  Albert  Dlirer  and  the  other  Masters  in  _that  time  long  ago. 


50 


CHAPTER  III 

You  know  now  the  beginning  of  the  Alphabet,  the  careful  way  it  was 
planned  and  made,  and  how  finally  after  so  many  years  it  has  come  to  be 
used  in  the  form  in  which  we  have  it  today.  Do  you  remember  that  when 
Albert  Diirer  made  his  Alphabet  of  Roman  letters  he  made  more  than  one 
form  of  each  letter  —  there  were  three  y^'s,  for  example.  Would  you  like 
to  know  why  he  did  this?  Plate  IX  shows  you  two  other  kinds  of  Alphabets 
made  long  ago  by  a  Spanish  artist,  Francisco  Lucas.  Look  at  the  Italic 
capital  letters  in  the  upper  part  of  this  Plate.  You  can  easily  see  that  there 
are  two  different  forms  of  the  same  letters,  can  you  not?  But  now  look  at 
the  small  letters.  You  still  see  that  there  are  two  examples  of  each  letter, 
but  they  are  so  much  alike  that  you  will  have  to  look  very  carefully  to 
see  the  difference  between  the  two  form.s.  Why  do  you  suppose  this  artist 
went  to  the  trouble  to  make  these  letters  so  much  alike,  and  yet  different? 
Do  you  not  think  that  this  would  be  a  very  strange  thing  to  do  unless  there 
was  a  good  reason  for  it?  Look  at  the  lower  part  of  the  Plate  and  you  will 
see  that  there  are  two  different  forms  of  the  small  Roman  letters  also. 
Now  turn  back  to  Lesson  XV.  You  see  that  by  using  a  capital  letter  for 
the  a  form  and  a  small  letter  for  the  b  form  you  were  able  to  hide  within 
the  phrase  "Biliteral  Cipher"  the  word,  "key."  You  can  easily  see  that 
this  would  not  be  a  good  way  to  hide  a  secret,  for  the  difference  between  the 
large  and  small  letters  is  not  only  easy  to  see,  but  looks  so  strange  that  it 
is  the  first  thing  you  notice.  Now  suppose  that  instead  of  using  a  capital 
letter  for  the  a  form  and  a  small  letter  for  the  b  form  you  use  for  each  letter 
of  the  Alphabet,  both  capital  and  small,  two  forms  which  were  very  much 
alike  but  still  were  different.  In  the  following  line— 


literal   Cipher 

i  ii        i     2    ' 


you  see  the  same  phrase  "Biliteral  Cipher/'  but  it  does  not  look  strange 
to  you,  does  it?   Still,  if  you  will  study  it  carefully  you  will  see  that  the  first 


i  is  different  from  the  second,  and  that  the  first  /  in  "BiHteral"  is  different 
from  the  second  /.  You  have  guessed  by  this  time  that  the  phrase  "  Biliteral 
Cipher,"  as  it  stands  here,  also  contains  a  hidden  word.  The  word  is  "the." 
This  phrase  was  made  to  contain  the  word  "the"  by  using  the  two  forms 
of  letters  which  you  see  in  the  upper  part  of  Plate  IX  and  which  were  called 
"doubles"  by  the  printers  who  used  them  several  hundred  years  ago.  Now 
do  you  begin  to  see  how  important  these  two  forms  are? 

Look  again  at  the  little  Shakespeare  poem  in  the  Italic  alphabet  on 
Plate  VIII.  Now  that  you  know  about  doubles  you  can  see,  if  you  have 
learned  to  use  your  eyes,  that  we  have  hidden  a  secret  within  this  poem  too. 
Would  you  like  to  know  what  it  is?  We  will  help  you  to  work  it  out  by 
giving  you  what  is  called  a  Classifier  which  will  make  it  easy  to  decipher 
the  verse.  On  this  Classifier,  which  you  will  find  on  Plate  X,  the  very  same 
Italic  letters  that  you  saw  in  Plate  IX  have  been  arranged  so  that  all  the 
a  form  letters  are  above  the  shaded  part  and  all  the  b  form  letters  below. 
Now  if  you  will  tear  out  this  whole  page  and  carefully  cut  out  these  shaded 
parts  you  can  place  this  page  over  the  lines  of  the  poem  in  italic  letters. 
This  will  help  you  to  decide  to  which  form,  the  letters  of  the  poem  belong. 
Place  the  Classifier  over  the  poem  so  that  the  first  letter,  the  capital  H  of 
Have,  is  between  the  a  form  and  the  b  form  capital  H  on  the  Classifier.  You 
will  see  that  this  capital  H  of  Have  is  the  a  form.  Now  below  the  Classifier 
has  been  placed  something  which  will  help  you  still  more.  All  the  words  of 
the  poem  have  been  divided  and  have  been  placed  into  groups  of  five  letters. 
As  we  decided  that  the  H  of  Have  belongs  to  the  a  form,  we  have  placed  an 
a  beneath  the  H  in  the  first  group  of  five  letters.  Now  move  the  Classifier 
so  that  the  a  in  Have  comes  between  the  a  form,  a  and  the  b  form  a  on  the 
Classifier.  You  will  see  that  this  letter  also  belongs  to  the  a  form.  If  you 
will  do  the  same  to  the  rest  of  the  letters  of  this  first  group  you  will  find 
that  they  are  all  a  form  letters.  Now  what  letter  of  the  Alphabet  does  a 
group  of  five  #'s  stand  for? — A,  does  it  not?  So  the  first  letter  in  our  secret 
is  A.  Now  place  the  Classifier  over  the  rest  of  the  letters  of  the  poem  and 


52 


see  to  what  form  they  belong,  just  as  we  have  done  for  you  in  the  first 
group.    If  you  do  your  work  carefully  you  will  find  the  hidden  secret. 

If  we  can  hide  one  word  in  "  Biliteral  Cipher"  and  a  sentence  in  a  short 
poem,  do  you  not  see  how  a  whole  story  could  be  hidden  so  carefully  within 
a  book  that  it  might  not  be  discovered  for  many,  many  years? 


58 


PLATE  I 


ad  rDr 
ikliunop 

qrtfsrau 


ALPHABET  by  ALBERT  DURER  (A.  D.  1525) 


56 


PLATE  II 


000 


T 

i- 


V 


O  O 


I 

7\ 


7 


CK> 


0 


O 


CONSTRUCTION  OF  ALPHABET 


PLATE  III 


AAA 

BBB 
CCC 
ODD 


ALPHABET,  with  construction:    A,  DURER  (A.  D.  1525) 


59 


PLATE  IV 


GG 


o 


b 


KK 


ALPHABET,  with  construction:    A.  DURER  (A.  D.  1525) 


PLATE  V 


M' 

NN 


N 


PPP 


ALPHABET,  with  construction:    A.  DURER  (A.  D.  1525) 


PLATE  VI 


ss 


<j 


o 


TT 


V 


ALPHABET,  with  construction:    A.  DURER  (A.  D.  1525) 


PLATE  VII 


ZZ 


ALPHABET,  with  construction:    A.  DURER  (A.  D.  1525) 


67 


PLATE  VIII 


iljan  tljint 
less  ifyait  tfymt 
less  tfymt  tljoit  oftrest, 
more  tl|an  tljmt 
less  tljan  ifyou 


more  than  thou  showcst, 
Speak  less  than  thou  kndtoest, 
less  than  thou  owest, 
more  than  thou  trowcst, 
Set  less  than  thou  thrdfrest. 


Shakesp 


tare. 


Have  more  than  thou  showest, 
Speak  less  than  thou  knowest, 
Lend  less  than  thou  owest, 
Learn  more  than  thou  trowest, 
Set  less  than  thou  throwest. 

-SHAKESPEARE. 

69 


PLATE  IX 


cdaabbccddeeffggbhiijllmmnnoop 


G  ft  H  1  5  ^Lc^fC  cM  M 
2V  0  O<?  P          7L  S  S* 


Letra  delGtrifo  que  cfcreuia  Tran,  Lutfs  <~En 

.  O).  Z/XX  VIL 


ITALIC  ALPHABET,  BY  FRANCISCO  LUCAS 


Aaabbccddce.fffTgghhiijll  m 
mnnooppcjqrrfffrssftttftvV' 


uuxxyyzz.6ft 

c/*/ 

ABCDEFGHIL: 

MN  o  p  Q^ILS  T  V" 

cr^:  x  YZ  z,:^, 

Letra  antigua  que  efcreuia  Fran  Lu- 
cas en  Madrid.  Ano  de.m.d.lxxvii. 

ROMAN  ALPHABET,  BY  FRANCISCO  LUCAS 


PLATE  X 


THE  BI-FORMED  ALPHABET  CLASSIFIER 

For  Use  with  the  Lucas  Alphabets,  1577 


5  73 

a  I  c  d  tfg  hikhnnopq  rj  s  t  u  v  w  xjy 


ab  c  d  c  f  g  h  i  k  I  m  n  of.  a  r  f  s  t  uv  Ibicy  z 


COPYRIGHTED,   1916.  GEORGE   FABYAN 


a  forms  above  the  shaded  parts,  b  forms  below 

CUT  OUT  SHADED  PART  WITH  SHARP  KN 


TRANSCRIPTION 
Havem     oreth     antho     ushow     estSp      eakle     sstha     nthou     knowe 

a  a  a  a  a 

A 
stLen     dless     thant     houow     estLe      arnmo      retha      nthou      trowe 


stSet     lesst     hanth     outhr     owest     Shake     spear     e 


PB~7200-SB 
75-4 7T 
C 


